DQ8: The Mind Game
by Dragonmaidx
Summary: Summary: SPOILERS WARNING! A flashback episode, half way through the game. One member of the party falls into the abyss but is not alone. Chapter 2.
1. Chapter 1

DQ8: The Dark Chronicles Of The Universe: The Mind Game 

Summary: SPOILERS WARNING! A flashback episode, half way through the game. One member of the party falls into the abyss but is not alone. By seeking useful advise, is there a secret potential that is hidden ready to be unleashed to put an end to this tragic nightmare? Rated M

Author's note: There are three things that I must warn you to all readers:

1) Firstly, Dragon Quest 8 does not belong to me and some dialogue of the game is used! Plagiarism thingy.

2) Secondly, if you have not yet finish all the tasks in Arcadia, I strongly recommend you complete this event (or beat the game) before reading. However, if you love to spoil yourself by all means read on. I did say I did warn you!

3) Finally, this story is rated M. This involves strong violence, language, some sexual acts but mainly torture that is sustained throughout the story. So if you are under aged, scram or you will be sorry!!!

Anyway, that's enough talk from me. Let's go!

The Mind Game 

Written by Dragon Maid x

Chapter 1: Voices Of Possession

"_I will kill you, all of you!__"_

"_You will have to go through us first!__"_

"_HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! You fools. You__'__ll never defeat me!__"_

_*After a long gentle but fierce battle, he thought that he had won.*_

"_No! This can__'__t. . . be happening.__"_

"_This is the end for all of you! Prepare to- What!? You clever-__"_

_*The killer appears from nowhere as a deadly weapon thrusts into the beast__'__s heart. He screams knowing that he is history.*_

"_Arrgh! No. . . Impossible! Arrgh!!!__"_

"_. . . Nothing is impossible but only certain things!__"_

"_How. . . can this. . . be? I possess. . . the power. . . Of- I will kill you! I will kill you for this!" _

_He tried to hit the murderer but he could not hit his target._

"_Come on. . . Die! Die! Die! Why wont you just die?__"_

"_Because I will never die!__"_

"_No. . . No! No! You will die!__"_

"_You__'__ll pay for what you did!__"_

"_NOOOOOOO!!!!!! You can not do this! Please? Spare my life and I can-__"_

"_Why should I spare your pitiful after what you have done to me and to everyone in this world? Consider yourself a very lucky person. Fine! Do as you wish!__"_

_*The slayer began to walk away from the beast, who remains standing and is holding his heart. He watched the slayer disappearing into the dust. He felt humiliated so he decided to take action.*_

"_What!? No. I am the strongest. You will perish!_

_*He tried to stop the murderer.*_

"_You fool!__"_

_*Pain strikes again into the beast__'__s body. The murderer rises the bloody metal that reflects the blood that is thicker than the holy waters that lie in the greatest lakes. The poor beast had been raped.*_

"_Whenever I say to someone that I will promise them something, what ever the consequences is, I mean it!__"_

_*The beast takes his last look before the ghastly blood rushes into his eyes. He roared at the ceiling as his body stiffens into hard stone. Without much haste, he rested into disappearance.*_

_____________________________________________________________________

Jessica shudders in her bed as she could feel the pressure of her heart racing rapidly. She is wide awake as the hot sweat expands over her face and is leaning upright as if she were doing crunches but could not be bothered to sit up properly. After she had been startled she decided to reflect her memories to what had woken her up. Indeed it was the same nightmare of killing Dhoulmagus has cursed her sweet dreams every time she snoozes so deeply.

It was unbelievable that a woman like her, who hated the guts and gore, would take revenge into murdering a deformed jester just to avenge her big brother, Alastair. The lads in the party refused to look at the horrific scene as she stabbed Dhoulmagus in the most brutal way. Each cut marked mixtures of red, dark green and purple blood shooting out of the profane jester's beastly body as his screeches echoed through the whole dungeon, of the Dark Ruins.

Jessica sighs and tries to sleep again. She throws her head against the pillow, shuts her burning eyes softly breathing in and out to calm herself into a good night's snooze. This time, she hears a deep voice calling her name which sounded freaky. "Jessica!"

After dreaming something hideous and hearing a voice calling for her in an evil way, she could not sleep in peace for the rest of the night so red haired mage gets out of bed, puts her boots on and walks out from the inn. She wanted to wake the others but decides to leave them since they are sleeping themselves.

However, she was expecting one of the men to be awake, like Angelo, or even Eight, who would be standing outside making some excuse, "I can't sleep or why are you up so late?" when they are actually more tired themselves. Surprising enough, no one was out tonight.

The party were so exhausted form the long hard battle against Dhoulmagus which lasted at least two days of solid brawling so it was right for them to rest for the night and it would help them to release the intense pressure that they had faced for the last couple of months. Suddenly the same voice calls her again. "Jessica! Come over here!"

The mage looks with fright as she follows the mysterious voice which leads into the wagon where the sceptre was kept behind the alchemy pot. She pulls it out as she examines the luxury details of the deep purple thick roots that are twisted round the dark gold sceptre.

Once observing it, she moves away from the wagon trying to not disturbing King Trode and Princess Medea's sleep. The next thing the mage did was that she is standing in the middle of the street of Argonia and takes a quick glance around the surroundings of the silent street.

Immediately an empathy came to her mind. She then gazes into the reddish orb and mutters to herself. _Is it even possible to resurrecting someone from the dead even if their soul had passed away? _By wielding this sceptre it might bring a result of reviving her brother's soul so that she could bring him back alive. "Alright, let's see what this thing can do!?"

Before she could lift the sceptre, a flash twigs her mind as she touches the temple of her head gritting her teeth. She glares at the sceptre with disgust and tries again but the same thing happened again and this agitates her. "Grah! Why won't you do something? Every time I use it nothing happens. . . Stupid sceptre!"

Jessica is about to throw the sceptre but some ominous takes over. She clutches the weapon and falls on one knee touching her head in pain. "W-What!? . . . Ow! W-What's happening? Ow my head!"

Suddenly, a strange purple aura surrounds the young mage as the sceptre itself begins to speak her directly. "Ah, a new flesh, a new body. Yes! Finally come to me!"

The talking sceptre then glows into a darker shade of the purple aura unleashing the nasty thorns that begin to fly out from the sceptre. By wrapping it's bondage round the mage's arm, she is astonish. "The sceptre! But how!?" She tries to shake it off but none prevail this time. "Arrgh! Get it off me! Get off me you. . . You!"

The mage raises her limits by awakening her ancient flames that surround her. The thorns that originally gathered round her did not dare get closer to her burning aura. The voice speaks again. "Ah ha! Now that's what I call power! I see that your powers are incredible at your stage! Yes, you are perfect! Come now, we must talk more. You will be my next slave!"

Jessica attempts to cry for help but the wicked thorns gag her so that she could only muffle and the sceptre's might took over her body. The deadly thorns move in closer and cover the mage completely like a shroud.

Once the thorns have done their task, the mage loses her conscious and falls into the abyss of blackness. Here, we witness a new bond and Jessica is gone!

First chapter complete. Next chapter is coming soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Relationship!? Go To Hell!

Summary: A mysterious monster makes an appearance by his admiration, basically love sick, for Jessica but where do they begin?

I slowly open my eyes. There was nothing at first sight but the orangey-red colour makes me feel very uncomfortable. All I see is shades of red blood running everywhere so I gasp silently thinking that I am bleeding to death. However, I do not feel any lose of blood but I notice that I am lying on the ground sideward's and that my wrists and ankles felt heavy as they were wrapped round by the rusty manacles.

My head turns gracefully and eventually I sit up feeling the pain of my aching body finding myself in a daunting cell made from hard rock as the shackles shuffle along the floor. I hear some shouting so I glance round and realised that I am sitting with a few monsters all bunched up into one large cell.

However, it is only the monstrous guards, who were wielding clubs, were beating the convicts for no reason. (Well they are in a cell so they must have done something) The prisoners have no with weapons but their fists. I did not move a muscle, just sitting here hopeless and watching them suffer greatly.

I could not do anything. I did not have the momentum to stand up and the energy to break the cell bars. I could not force myself to become angrily enough to cast a fire ball or enchant a defensive barrier to protect them. I could not do anything except sit there looking down at the floor because I could not bear the pain that they have to face. After they fell down with no response of cries, the guards leave the cell in silence.

Suddenly, my body jumps with fright as I was unaware of the monster's presences. I place both of my hands on my chest that spouts in and out to exaggerating the breathing. "Ah, you are awake." The lax monster said to me. "I am so sorry, child. I did not mean to scare you. I just wanted to see if you were alright?"

I sink my shoulders knowing that this monster is an old school type and nod my head slowly to indicate my reassurances of myself. "It's okay. . . I am fine thank you."

The monster smiles softly and turns away facing the monsters that are still suffering in pain. I need to know where I am and why so I ask the old monster. "What did those monsters do?"

"Oh, they did not do their task of carrying the logs to the master's fireplace and because they did not do as they were told so their punishment is that they get no food but since they constantly argue, the guardsmen beat them and that is why they are suffering."

"Okay. . . Ermm, do you know where I am by any chance?"

"Well, I can tell you that we are in a prison."

"Well, of course, I know that but my question is why we are here?"

"We are here because our souls have long departed. We are all dead."

"But I am not dead, surely I am not? The last thing that I remembered was that I took the sceptre out of the wagon and I was trying out a spell but some strange voice spoke to me and from nowhere these thrones appeared and sucked me into darkness."

"How strange!? Normally all of us have been killed off and our souls have been spared in order to give our powers to our master. I do not know the master as I have never met him myself but I do know that you and I will be here for a very long time. Welcome to the mysterious mind of purgatory."

"Purgatory!? Hold on. Who is in charge here? What have I done to deserve this?"

"That is the question that I do not know, my child. If you say that you did no harm and that you are not dead then I do not know why you are here?"

"Well to be honest, I really do not know myself, otherwise I not be here in the first place but is there any chance that I can speak to this master? D-Do you think he can set me free? I must know."

"That will come down to the master's decision. I cannot predict your future but my advise to you is to be prepared for a closer examination. You will have to do a test I'm afraid."

"A test!?"

"Yes. Well, what I mean is that many monsters before you came have tried to get out alive but they all failed. And another thing, if you do not do as the master orders then you will be punished whether human or not."

Words were lost for me to answer so I remain quite as I lower my head in shame knowing that I will be waiting for a long time before I will be set free. Therefore, I sit with my legs cross meditating as I patiently stay in the same spot for my arrival of my meeting with the master.

It had been at least ten minutes or so that the prison remains silent. Well, it had been until one of the survivors, who had made a recovery from his injuries, spoke so ill- mannered. "Arrgh! Bloody fools! I swear I'll hit'em idiots if they do that again. Fools! Bloody fools!"

The monster, who appears to be a Golem, slams his fist on the wall that frightened me. It made my jump out of my skin. I can feel my internal skin that crawls deeply which disturbs me from my meditation. He is speaking gibberish continuously but I sit there saying nothing hoping that he would stop.

"Oh man, I swear I can be a good servant to him. Oh, I wished I had a weapon too so that me and the guards can battle it out fairly. Dam it! I would own them if I had the chance. I got the ubër falcon blade and that does four times damage. I can even take them on if I have no weapons."

I began to lose my patients. I am still sitting down on the hard floor but I finally said something to shut him up. "You talk so big for a guy your size. Honestly, if you can really beat them then why did you not fight back when they beat you up? I mean if you say that you are this strong then why can't you beat them?"

The prisoners look round to find that I have spoken for the first time. They are surprised themselves because of what I had said but it was the truth.

"_If I had his position, I would have asked the others to team attack the guards so that we could have a chance to find a way out. I do not know how long they were there for but at least they should know their room mates by now or at least for a while and thought about it. If only I had that chance I would use the courage and tried to break free." _

The angry Golem then raises his tone into sarcasm. "Who dares challenges me. It's- it's a Human? Human, why are you here?"

I glance up realising that he is talking to me. I did not say anything because I did not know myself, so I shrug as I did not answer his question so he shouts at me. "Answer me human? What are you deaf or somethin'?"

Suddenly, the old monster, which was kind to me earlier, joins in but he decides to support my point. He shouts at the Golem. "Leave her alone, you ugly mutt! Can't you see that she needs a bit of peace and quite to herself?"

However, the ugly brute turns his attention on the old monster and yells in his ear "Shut up! I ain't talking to you!" but the old creature dares himself to argue against him.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover, she can help us get out of here and what she says is the truth. How dare you speak to her so rudely? You should be ashamed of yourself because that's how your fiancé broke your relationship and that is why you are still here. You are foolish and have not learnt your mistakes, boy."

The deformed Golem raises his arm and whacks the old monster across the face with his back hand. The old fellow stuns in shock before he could hit the floor. "Don't you call me boy, old man? You dare try to insult me? I'll beat you to a pulp!"

The aggressive monster starts to lash the old creature but stops his violent actions when I challenged the beast by pushing him away. "Hey! Back off you jerk". His eyes were fixed on me, again and attempted to hit me. "Why you little-"

Unfortunately, I block his offensive attack as I quickly pulled an upper cut that catches him of guard. The beast is holding his stomach, where I had wounded him, growling at me while he was trying to move towards me. "That's it, you witch! You're going down!"

I positioned myself ready for more action but all in a sudden, everyone in the cellar all turned their eyes towards the gates that open abruptly as three monsters enter. Two of them were Cyclopes, who look similar but one of them appears to be a black dragon.

This is strange because I have never seen this type of monster before. It had various scars of red, gold and purple, marking all over his black scales. It had a smooth red beard, them flashing eyes and a yellow warm scaly belly. He is also broad built but tall and frightful looking beast armed with two swords kept safely in its sheath.

This black dragon strolls towards the cage by revealing a set of keys that opens the cell. He then draws near into my territory and takes my arms gently. When I saw his face for the first time, he gives me a kind smile as something told me that I should be aware of this creature so I kept my head down. Then, I follow him carefully out of the chamber saying nothing but we were interrupted by the hideous brute, who tried to assault me earlier, yells at the two of us. "Hey! How come she gets to go?"

The dragon, which helped me, sighs and focused his demon like eyes onto him with a sense of anger that boiled in his face. The dragon immediately orders the guards to dispose him. "Guards! Dispose him! I'll deal with the lady, myself!"

Although I left the room, I never saw what happened to the revolting monster, which had been so rude to me. I assumed that he was beaten, yet again because he was not very strong after all.

I was taken out of that mad cell and into the long corridor. This black dragon, which is still holding my arms so softly, shuts the gates and asks me in a pleasant tone. "Are you alright my Lady?" I simply nod my head to answer his question. With that response, he smiles. "Good! I'm glad you're alright!"

Together, we walk along the gloomy corridor. I hate corridors because they are narrow, petite and there are only two routes; it's either one way or another. I mean, there are other ways such as the top or the bottom but they are normally solid concrete and even if I did break them, I would still have to use all of my magic to destroy any magic penetration.

I started to feel nervous at this point. I was lead by this dragon beast who strolls along side of me, talking to me as if we were having our romantic chat routine. Seriously, who would be glad to meet someone in a prison if you are unsure who they are because I certainly would not be?

I take a breath and decide to question the dragon so that I could make an attempt to break free. "I don't mean to be rude but why are you smiling at me?"

"Because you look very sad and scared. I hate seeing women looking sad at your age." He said. "You have fallen into the abyss. It worries me!" He answers.

"What abyss? W-Why are you so worried?" I solicit.

"Because women should not be punished. Only men should be in prison and should suffer. That is why I took you out of the room." The dragon said humbly.

"Well, that's very kind of you." I thanked him.

"I'm always kind but no one seems to respect that." He groaned.

"So. . . Are you going to eat me, then?" I suggested to him.

"No! Never! Why would I eat you? I am only interested in bigger monsters for food!" He shakes his head rapidly and vigorously.

"So. . . You are a guardsman, then?"

"Yes. Well, actually I am a servant too."

"Really? You do not look like one that's for sure. I am saying this because you were so cruel to the rest of the criminals in the prison because you certainly don't not look after them very well, do you?"

"Ah, I suppose you could say that."

"Then why are you being so nice to me? Why did you not beat me just like the rest of the prisoners?"

"Like I said, there's no need to beat a young beautiful lady like you."

The dragon stops and stares at me. He lifts his chin up high as he knells onto one knee. "You look gorgeous. Yes, you are all grown up now. How sweet is that?"

"Just where are you getting at?" I snapped. "I do not need this; you leering at me as if I am some Goddess come from heaven. I still do not know why I am here?"

"Oh, I don't know how or why you are here but I have finally found you. My long lost idol!"

Okay. This is beginning to become very strange now. This is a dragon, who I have never seen in my entire life is basically love sick and I have only met him for five minutes. Am I dreaming or is this real?

I feel as if I am going insane so I question the dragon. "Who are you?" He said nothing because he is too busy leering at me. Therefore, I demanded an answer from the beast. "I said who are you? . . . Answer me!"

"I do not need to answer that question because you know yourself!" The dragon replies. "You know who I am, don't you?"

"No! I don't. Look, I am sorry but I am telling you the truth. Honestly, I don't know who you are because I have never seen you before! I-I think you have mistaken me for someone else!"

"Oh!? You don't remember then? Well then. . . I suppose it was a long time ago since we met. You don't remember who I am, do you, Jessica Albert?"

Suddenly, I yell "Stop!" The creature stands up and stumble a few paces away from me because I frightened him as I did not realise myself that I roar louder than a Sabercat. He relaxes as I lower my tone and asked him. "How do you know who I am?"

"I knew this would happen! And I don't know why I say it?" The beast sighed. "Lady Jessica. You really have forgotten who I am, haven't you?"

He takes my small hands and encloses them with his claws that were shaped like a small cave; a marriage proposal. I abruptly look down at him with disgust as I grip my teeth and draw closer to his face.

"Look, it's not my fault that I forget things. That's part of human nature. I still don't know who you are or why I am here but I am going to find a way of getting out of this crazy dream whether you like it or not. Before I go, I need to mention another thing, do not call me a lady!"

"Don't be so daft. You are not dreaming. This is real! Listen to me, my lady. I know there is explaining to be done but now, you must face him."

"I told you not to call me- Wait a minute. . . Face who?"

Chapter 2 done. You know who's coming next. Yes, chapter three is coming soon and Jessica has her first meeting with Rhapthorne!


End file.
